Cold turkey alcohol withdrawal cured my addiction, am I a freak of nature?

Hi ATS, I've posted this in medical conspiracies because that's exactly how it feels to me now...

NY's eve 2019 I had been an alcoholic for 4 years, roughly 1litre of vodka every day. The national health service support team had consistently told me cold turkey didn't work, the only way was "their" way, and all they offered me was a life of permanent 'recovery' on their drugs, but never ever cured.

I didn't believe that, so ignored them and stopped suddenly regardless. Well on the 3rd January 2020, hallucinations started and quite scared I got myself to the emergency unit, explained what I was doing, and gave my name, being very careful to spell it correctly because I am the only person in the UK with my name (former govt worker so I knew it as fact) once the receptionist tapped my exact name into their computer, I felt an overwhelming feeling of relief that I was safe...and my heart suddenly stopped!

X amps of electricity started my heart quickly and I woke up from an enforced coma in February, with my speaking voice absolutely destroyed from the tracheostomy...and still psychologically just as addicted to alcohol as I ever was, because I didn't go through the horrors of withdrawal.
As Michael Caine said "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" I was thinking You were only supposed to start my heart again, not physically damage me!😱

Well it got worse then lol, they had me drugged up on a ward of addicts, all broken souls convinced that there was no cure for them, then the TV news was all about some scary killer virus killing everybody it touches.
The staff were very scared, so a day before the first lockdown I discharged myself against all advice and went home to immediately get back on a litre of vodka a day, riding out all the whole covid thing in my own home until September when I chose a day, and did it again, but this time I wasn't going near the butcher's in my local hospital, I was waking up cured or dead, didn't care which was the result.

Third day in hallucinating badly, I remembered my heart stopping first time, and it was when I felt 'safe' in NHS care, I'd stopped believing in myself - I damn well wasn't doing that again, laughed like a crazy person shouting at my heart "there's # all wrong with you, ya weak prick, if you stop this time we're actually #in dead so, subconscious me, think very carefully before shutting down coz we're both #ed!"

Horrific hallucinations, I even offered the devil himself out lol, stood in my kitchen laughing at me "# off your just in my mind, if you are #in real do something, fight me ya #!" Well he disappeared (thank #!) And I collapsed on the floor sobbing with joy that I'd pulled it off!

Few days later I was convinced that reality was back, and the biggest change was that I was absolutely cured of that addiction. I looked at booze with the same fear I look at heroin, not a cell in my body wanted it ever again.

Since then I've formed my first Ltd company (LLC in US I think) I'm the only emploee on minimum wage lol, but importantly I now pay full Income tax and national insurance as a good little worker bee!

Everything has been fixed, it's over two years now and I keep booze in my refrigerator for guests, I ain't touching that hard drug again lol, only thing I can't fix is my previously strong public speaking voice which the hospital butcher's destroyed by putting me in a coma.

So why have I posted this thread now?
Well, this week I visited my local doctor as I had a massive painful swollen testicle, she said, where have you been, you've been off our radar since you discharged yourself from hospital.
I explained my story as above, she said she didn't know cold turkey actually worked, I said "Well your butcher's don't EVER help people do it, all I wanted was a safe place to hallucinate, and start my heart if it stopped, the second the hallucinations stopped I was cured, but instead you turn addicts into lifelong NHS drug dependency"

She said well you are lucky then, I said "No, I just didn't stop believing in myself, and I will NEVER ever blindly trust 'experts' again...except for now with a badly swollen testicle that I can't fix myself!"She pissed laughing, ultrasound scan, strong antibiotics, and I'm recovering now again lol.

So ATS, has anyone else done this?
I'm #in sick of hearing"oh I'm in lifelong recovery" I'm like no, your still psychologically addicted, and ONLY because you didn't go through the horrors of withdrawals.

I'm absolutely convinced that it is a conspiracy by medical drug pushers now, I go to pubs and bars all the time now, drunk people are still a good laugh, just my orange juice costs # all, I don't make any bad drunken decisions anymore!

...or maybe I'm a freak of nature, what says you?
I'm interested in any and ALL opinions on this almost taboo subject😁

Alcohol addiction in my thinking is a marketing tool for the hospital wards. You take away the money from the addict, they quit drinking . PERIOD
Can you stop drinking permanently? Yes, of course. But a trained shrink (psychiatrist ) will want you as a patient ( in house ) and make money off of you . They know if you are hospitalized to try to stop drinking, it doesn't work in the real world. You STOP DRINKING ON YOUR OWN ACCORD, SAME WITH SMOKING CIGS

Alcoholism is a disease was classified so by the American Medical Association in 1954. It’s a chronic , progressive, fatal disease And anyone who thinks it’s a moral issue of will power is uneducated, and really needs to read the 100s off peer reviewed scientific studies proving this.

Congratulations it sounds like you aren’t an alcoholic!
I say this from many years Sober that real alcoholics can’t quit under their own will power. A real alcoholic does not have the ability to control the amount they drink once it’s injested or be able to quit when they promise themselves to quit or moderate.

It took 7 years and 6 rehabs, 3 detoxes and 3 psychiatric wards for me to even admit thatI had a drinking problem.

When I asked God to relieve me of the obsession to drink and I turned my life and my will over to him and worked the 12 steps of recovery was when the obsession was lifted.

If anyone can quit on their own my hat is off to you because I certainly tried for years but my so called “ will power” was non existent.

a reply to: angeltone

My mom was an alcoholic for 68 years.
Started getting drunk at age of 5 because of starvation, her and neighborhood kids would eat
Scraps of rotten barley, from factory waste, which due to rotting was fermented. It made them drunk so they would forget how hungry they were.

She continued to drink throughout her life without ever stopping. Some years would be less, some more.
Completely and totally addicted.

Then one day, she was tired of drinking and she just stopped. She didn’t have any withdrawals, no shakes, absolutely nothing. I know I was there. She didn’t have a drop after either.

The alcoholic gene runs in my family. Luckily I didn’t get it but my sibling sure did. I’m worried one of my kids did too.

a reply to: angeltone

I once met a hostel owner in Jerusalem at the Tabasco.............. He recommended one drinks a little bit, eats a little bit, smokes a little bit, sleeps a little bit, makes love a little it, then go full circles and repeat............... drinks a little bit, eats a little bit, smokes a little bit, sleeps a little bit, makes love a little it, then go full circles and repeat................ Still decades later living by the advice

a reply to: JAGStorm
Alcoholic gene is interesting, I'm not even half a century yet, and both parents and two older brothers are dead directly from using ethanol...I call it that because that is the specific drug which killed all of them.

a reply to: ufoorbhunter
Lol I'd love to do that but the absolute horrors I went through in withdrawal I really do look at ethanol like it's dirty heroin now, I absolutely killed my relationship with it!🤣

a reply to: angeltone
My opinion is that you are a very strong person and that you made it yourself. I applaud your mental strength to pull it off the way you did. The way you handle contact with alcohol reads like you found a healthy approach.

You can be proud about yourself and these are not just empty words. Around three years ago, almost exactly three years, I saw the bottom of many bottles. For over a week I was constantly #faced drunk, killing the pain and trying to sleep. Before that, I drank alcohol almost daily (a beer during dinner was common) but had it under control. Not in that week.

So I know a tiny tiny bit how hard it is to quit from alcohol after longer abuse and your achievement is impressive. Thank you for sharing your experience.

a reply to: angeltone

Wow a liter of vodka a day? Thank god you are still alive.
Even back in my 20s when me and my buddies were what I thought was hard drinkers, we didn’t drink that much between 2 or 3 of us a day.
Not even close to that but some days were worse than others.
Congrats on your new life.

Something to remember about alcohol and alcoholism is that it's patient, makes you think you don't have and problem and it's out to kill you. I've gone cold turkey with many things including alcohol.

Will you let us know if you relapse?

a reply to: angeltone

I would say congratulations on your recovery, but Ill also say that youre damn lucky you didnt die.

It is NOT a lie that Alcoholism is one of the few things that can kill you if you stop cold turkey, thats not a conspiracy theory


I would also say, be very careful of your brovado when it comes to "not being an alcoholic" anymore, because its about the time you start thinking like that it slips up and bites you

It starts as "ahh its just a drink on new years ill be fine" to "oh its just a drink with my friend for their wedding congrats"
to "itse just a few drinks on friday night not a big deal"

As you slowly but surely slide back into the place you were or worse.

Again im very very happy that youre at this point right now, but as a nurse myself and as a woman who had an alcoholic father and mother , one of which died from it and the other who destroyed his life and we dont even know where he is, I would say be very warry of hubris.

You may not be actively an alcoholic, but once youre an alcoholic you ALWAYS have that disease, period, its always there chemically in your brain just waiting to be triggered again.

I hear stories like this all the time and I always feel bad for them, because they havent gotten to the point they realize what they are

and until they REALLY understand that, they will never really be prepared

a reply to: angeltone

You have certainly been from h3ll and back. I would not wish would you went through on my worst enemy. That being said, the medical profession only makes money if you are sick. It really does not add to their bottom line, if you get better. If they cannot get you into the tread mill, of never-ending horrible, perpetual drugs, then they feel as if they have surely failed business 101, and everyone soon learns that no one escapes the treadmill, once they have been sucked in.

Congratulations, for you have triumphed over two things, your own addiction, and the blood sucking death spiral, which the medical world wishes to place you in.

originally posted by: Brassmonkey
Alcoholism is a disease was classified so by the American Medical Association in 1954. It’s a chronic , progressive, fatal disease And anyone who thinks it’s a moral issue of will power is uneducated, and really needs to read the 100s off peer reviewed scientific studies proving this.

Congratulations it sounds like you aren’t an alcoholic!
I say this from many years Sober that real alcoholics can’t quit under their own will power. A real alcoholic does not have the ability to control the amount they drink once it’s injested or be able to quit when they promise themselves to quit or moderate.

It took 7 years and 6 rehabs, 3 detoxes and 3 psychiatric wards for me to even admit thatI had a drinking problem.

When I asked God to relieve me of the obsession to drink and I turned my life and my will over to him and worked the 12 steps of recovery was when the obsession was lifted.

If anyone can quit on their own my hat is off to you because I certainly tried for years but my so called “ will power” was non existent.

This , this 1000 times.

I agree, if you can quit like that and never look back, youre not really an alcoholic, not in the clinical term anyway

Still I dont disparage the OP their winning out over their battle at all, its a great thing to be free of chemicals

a reply to: olaru12
Oh yes absolutely, I will!
My most trusted and loved male friend is a lurker member of ATS lol, so if I EVER so much as sniff booze again, he for sure will make his first post to shout here "You lying #, cold turkey didn't work!" 🤣

a reply to: angeltone

Know pretty much where you are coming from on the Vodka............. addiction started on Kfar Blum heck they never taxed it cus of the Russian immigrants. Cheap as chip Stoickakolina. Maybe it was £1 1/2 litre. Got to the 1 litre stage pretty quicly, on 'off nights' it was 1/2 litre just to keep the ball, rolling. Done plenty of things................ Thre is nothing like vodka
Too old for it now just a couple of beers and the odd EmdeeEmAy which ironically helped find another way yet still pretty weak compared to 1 Ltre of Vodka Stoichykolina

a reply to: angeltone

Nothing freakish about it - it's just that most people who are addicted don't have that kind of willpower. Docs don't recommend it because it's a "quitting" method that has the highest rate of failure.

So, unusual? Yes. That's a wonderful amount of determination! But freakish, no.


Not alcohol, but my dad was a 2 pack a day smoker and one day decided to quit cold turkey. He stayed off cigarettes until he died.

originally posted by: olaru12
Something to remember about alcohol and alcoholism is that it's patient, makes you think you don't have and problem and it's out to kill you. I've gone cold turkey with many things including alcohol.

Will you let us know if you relapse?

Absolutely this, YES

a reply to: angeltone

Sometimes the withdrawal is horrible enough to keep you from repeating it but it really depends on the individual person.

Prescription anxiety medication, benzodiazepines were that way for me, I had seizures from quitting it. Ironicly, it's what they put some alcoholic patients on to make the alcohol withdrawals subside or become managable; they are cross tolerant on the same receptors in the brain.

a reply to: Byrd

Docs don't recommend it because it's a "quitting" method that has the highest rate of failure.

This is true, it does, but it also CAN kill you, it happens a lot more often than you think, the deadly seizures and heart failure are a real thing, thats even aside from the other stuff

a reply to: Byrd
Oh I'll admit that I gave up cigarettes January 1st this week, but an hour before composing this thread I had a really bad argument with a female 'leech' friend, and I'm #ing smoking now as I type this!
I ain't really that strong willed, just as weak as every other human!🤣